Today's big news for the 31 million small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the United States who are among the growing number of businesses deploying a Mac, iPhone or iPad to work: Apple Business Essentials has left beta and now offers plans that include AppleCare support.
Apple feeds the business
Regular viewers will recognize that Apple Business Essentials has been available in beta in the US since its introduction in November 2021. The service is now available to all US businesses. In addition, there will be a free trial of Apple Business Essentials. two months available to all customers, including those using Apple Business Essentials in beta; the company says that tens of thousands of US companies are already using it.
Business owners outside of the United States will have to wait a while. International audiences may welcome Jeremy Butcher, Apple's director of marketing for business and education products, noting that the company already offers Apple Business Manager outside of North America, so it's easy to "imagine" expanding Essentials elsewhere. in the future.
Meanwhile, business owners can also choose alternatives, like those from Jamf, which add a range of additional features to the mix.
What Apple Announced
“Apple has been committed for decades to helping small businesses thrive. From the dedicated business teams in our stores to the App Store Small Business program, our goal is to help all businesses grow, compete and succeed,” said Susan Prescott, Apple's vice president of enterprise marketing and education.
As businesses grow, "more employees means more devices, which takes more time" to manage all those devices, he said. "We wanted to provide a simple solution so SMBs could focus on running their business, not their technology. Using this new service results in invaluable time savings for customers, including those without dedicated IT staff who can reinvest in your business.
This dedication to accessing the same type of IT support available to much larger companies is central to Apple's vision for the service. Constellation Research analyst R "Ray" Wang told me, "At the end of the day, small businesses can now get the same level of service as large enterprises. If you think about the service challenges large enterprises face , this is now available for small businesses as well.”
What are Apple Business Essentials?
Apple Business Essentials is a one-stop shop that offers small businesses iCloud+ for work, device, app and user management, and 24/7 support.
With the Collections feature, groups of apps can be provided to employees or teams, and settings like VPN settings, Wi-Fi passwords, and more. can be automatically transmitted to devices. This is the plan that has been tested for the last few months and now comes with AppleCare+ support.
Aimed at businesses with up to 500 employees, prices start at €2,99/month per user for a single device with up to 50GB of storage, €6,99/user for up to three devices and 200GB of storage, up to €12,99 .2/month per user for up to three devices and XNUMXTB of storage.
Employees simply sign in to their work account on their Apple device using a Managed Apple ID. Once they do, they'll have access to everything they need to be productive, including the new Apple Business Essentials app, where they can download the business apps available to them.
Managed Apple IDs can be created through federation with Microsoft Azure Active Directory and, later this spring, Google Workspace Identity Services.
Apple Business Essentials works with personal and company-issued devices, and with Apple's user enrollment feature, employees' personal information remains private and cryptographically separate from work data.
Now available with AppleCare for your entire company
What's new, at least for beta testers, is that Apple has now introduced the option to add AppleCare+ for Business Essentials. This provides 24/7 access to phone support, training for administrators and IT employees, and up to two device repairs per plan, per individual, group, or device, each year.
Employees can initiate repairs directly from the Apple Business Essentials app, and an Apple-trained technician can be on site in just four hours to perform repairs.
If you want to add AppleCare+ for Business Essentials, the prices are:
- €9.99/month per user for a single device, 50 GB storage, on-site repairs and 24/7 support with repair credit.
- €19.99/month per user for up to three devices, 200 GB of storage, on-site repairs and 24/7 support with two repair credits.
- €24.99/month per user for up to three devices, 2TB storage, on-site repairs and 24/7 support with two repair credits.
Repair credits are pooled across the enterprise, so if you pay for 20 users on the mid-tier plan, you'll get 40 repair credits per year.
Each of these credits is for a single repair: one credit can be used to repair a cracked iPhone screen or to replace a MacBook Pro motherboard. The cost is still one credit, regardless of the cost of the repair.
Since these repair credits are pooled together, it also means there is no limit to the number of repairs a single person or device can accumulate. If no one at his company breaks anything, but Clive in the accounts manages to break his iPhone screen every week, he can fix his smartphone 40 times before having to pay more. (Although you probably want to buy a sturdier case for it.)
Constellation's Wang said, "One of the best things is the repair credits, and that's what makes it quite exciting."
Of course, as Apple continues to expand its focus toward services, he added, "over the next two years, services will account for about 25% of Apple's revenue."
on the console
Like everything else in Apple Business Essentials, the entire system is controlled from a single management console, including repairs; Whoever manages the technology in your company can choose to approve or deny the use of repair credit through this console.
They can also assign permissions to people and devices and assign required apps to be downloaded to devices. You can, for example, designate Okta as one of these apps to ensure that an employee's device is fully equipped to access authenticated services.
what customers think
We also heard from some Apple Business Essentials customers when the company announced its news. Representatives from Sock Club, Replicated Grass Systems, and Espresso Services Inc. began using Apple Business Essentials during the beta testing period.
“Last week we integrated three employees. It used to take a few hours, but now it only takes 15 minutes," said the Sock Club's Max (he did not provide a last name). "As we get older, the time we recover makes sense and is worth it for us."
All three agree that Apple's system allows them to better manage the growth of their business, especially since all three have become technical directors of their company. Especially in smaller companies, the people dealing with these issues often try to take on other jobs, which somewhat limits the rate at which the workforce can grow.
"I started this business in 1989 with Apple products, and now the iPhone, iPad and Mac are used in sales, operations and service for our coffee equipment business," said Peter Kelsch, president of Espresso Services. “Apple Business Essentials makes it simple to deploy and secure our business as we continue to grow, it will reduce our IT management overhead and streamline our growth process. This will be a game changer for our business. »
Lots of Apple in business
It's been a busy few weeks for Apple's business teams as a number of big news breaks in the space: Cisco's AirPlay support for Webex devices, news that Apple IDs will be integrated with Google Workspace, new solutions for business users using Apple from Jamf, and this week of the UK MacAD conference, to name a few recent events.
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